INCAE ON SUSTAINABILITY

Working at the Base of the Pyramid: Teaching methods
Field-Work: Non-Traditional Learning
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC)
Access to impact investment for social enterprises
PRINCIPLE 3: METHOD
During the course “Entrepreneurship and Innovation,”
students (with the support of the professor) perform
field work and provide technical support to low-income
communities in order to foster entrepreneurship and
growth in small businesses over a six-month period.
INCAE has partnered with Thriive Capital, a North
American NGO that is socially embedded in poor
Nicaraguan communities and wants to advance its
mission. Thriive and INCAE selected a group of small
firms operating in both rural and urban areas. Our
second partner was a Spanish start-up nonprofit
(JuntoSalimos) that seeks to help entrepreneurs
in Latin America develop start-up ventures. INCAE
selects and prepares teams of MBA students
and systematizes the learning. Experience-based
Learning and Action-based Learning Techniques are
combined with case studies, visits with entrepreneurs
(live cases), audiovisual aids and other activities
based on participant-centered learning approaches.
This course is especially valuable to social enterprises
of all types and sizes operating in emerging markets
and looking for investments allowing them to scale.
It is a practice-driven course that guides participants
in their decisions and actions and helps them to
structure and lead their own projects. The course
supports teams and leaders when creating and
maintaining relations with global impact investors.
It guides them through the necessary processes of
creating structures and documents that demonstrate
their investment readiness as well as learning and
practicing methods of building and maintaining
excellent relations with investors.
Felipe Pérez, Dr.
Full Professor
felipe.perez@incae.edu
Urs Jäger, Dr.
Associate Professor. Academic
Director of the Latin American Center
for Entrepreneurs
urs.jager@incae.edu
The course “Creating Value for All” introduces students to a hands-on experience in social
entrepreneurship. It specifically addresses issues of ethics, ethical leadership, professional and
corporate responsibility, and sustainability—integrating them into the MBA core curriculum through
action-based learning.
In the last week of this module, the students participate in the workshop by applying two methodologies.
The first, is "Design Thinking," or DT, is an anthropological approach to identify, develop and test
solutions to existing problems and needs. The second, "Business Model Innovation," or BMI, is a
practical framework for defining business models based on the essential components of a business
such as partners, activities, resources, value proposition, customer relationships, sales channels,
customer segments, cost structures, and revenue streams. Students used both methods to develop
solutions to problems at the BoP. At the end of the workshop, the participants present their proposed
solutions to a jury comprised of managers from the firm in the case study, representatives of the BoP,
and experts on shared value and BoP. The students learn about methods of entrepreneurship and
gain experience that will impact their perception of responsible leadership.
The course focuses on a teaching case about a company in the dairy business that purchases milk
from poor farmers and sells it in the international market.
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Action-based learning (highlighted by EQUIS accreditation team)
Guillermo
Cardoza, PhD.
Full Professor
guillermo.
cardoza@
incae.edu
Urs Jäger, Dr.
Associate
Professor.
Academic Director
of the Latin
American Center
for Entrepreneurs
urs.jager@incae.
edu